The best thing you can do to adjust more quickly is to alter any negative attitudes or expectations you may hold about your home country. Don’t act superior to your compatriots. Rather, seek out a sympathetic ear with whom you can share your feelings and who will genuinely listen to you without accusing you of bragging. Ask them questions about what is going on in their life as well.
Seek Out a Support Group
Being able to share common concerns and coping strategies with other recent or more established returnees may help reduce the frustration, and sense of helplessness that can accompany re-entry. Students who return to places where few people have studied abroad may feel very alone since there is no one with whom they can share their experience. It helps to locate even one other person with whom you can discuss the sensation of re-culture shift.
Read about re-adjustment
Acknowledge the re-entry phase as part of the overseas experience. This will help you avoid feelings of guilt that might occur if you are feeling depressed or unhappy about being home. Remind yourself that readjustment is a natural psychological process when confronted with change and cannot be denied.
Share Your Feelings
Educate your family and friends about this phase of adjustment. Many people have never heard of reverse cultural adjustment. If the people around you are informed of what you are experiencing, more than likely, they will be a bit more patient and understanding. If you have difficulty communicating your feelings, it may a good idea to share this section of the student guide with your family and friends.
Stay in contact with your host culture
Keep in contact with the friends you made in your host country through letters, telephone calls, or e-mail. It will help you feel that what you experienced was real and not one big dream. Some returnees have the feeling of never having been overseas after their return to the home country.
Continue to keep a journal
Continuing to write in your journal about your experience overseas can be a healthy source self-therapy upon return. It is important to reflect on your memories and one of the best ways to do this is to pour your feeling out on paper.
Continue to practice a foreign language
Another coping strategy is to take an advanced course in the foreign language that interests you. However, if you cannot fit this into your class schedule, then think about contacting your university’s ESL department about becoming a conversation partner. Think about starting a language table, whereby a group of students interested in improving foreign language skills in a specific language can meet one to three times a week during either lunch or dinner. This will foster common interests in a specific language and/or a specific region of the world.